…actually this is likely the last part of the upgrade saga. While reviewing my last post this snippet stuck out:

The gameplay itself isn’t really enjoyable or redeeming in any way, you’re just playing for the arbitrary rewards. Those rewards are something the developers can crap out every few minutes if they want to…and they do, because many gamers just eat it up and beg for more.

It reminded me of yet another problem, games that never end. This is becoming a recurring theme here, that aspect by itself isn’t a bad thing but when it’s combined with shoddy gameplay, why do you keep playing?

When a game is designed to never end, the goal is usually the “next thing” whatever it is, be it a level up, new item, or whatever. But because it’s designed that way, there will always be a “next thing,” and when you have an infinite number of “next things” it dilutes the purpose entirely.

If the gameplay itself is fun then this isn’t a big deal. The rewarding aspect is the journey to whatever checkpoint. I think this is kind of the design of shorter focused games, the “next thing” is the end of the game. If the game wasn’t that fun you’re probably not going to replay it, but if it was truly fun you’ll have no problem doing it again and again. The end game goal doesn’t mean much at all after the first time, it’s just another checkpoint. You’re coming back because the journey to the goal is enjoyable.

My favorite example is the humble shooter:

Ketsui is not so humble

Most shooters take around 20-30 minutes start to end, at most. But you know what? Those 20-30 minutes are filled start to end with fantastic gameplay. Scoring systems in the better games have little facets that take a while to figure out and master, or if you don’t give a damn about score they’re still fun to play for survival. When I see the “Game Over” screen I’ll want to play again because it was fun. It’s not grinding through some horrible gameplay just to see “Game Over” again, I’m having a blast all the way through.

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Games without endings — and by endings I mean stopping points rather than final cutscenes — can work. Geometry Wars is pretty excellent. Especially the Pacifism mode in GW2 — it’s a mode without powerups/upgrades! But there’s still something about it that’s a slight turnoff. I will never be good enough to last 30 minutes+ playing it, but just knowing that the game can last that long…it creates this kind of psychological barrier, I guess. It makes me more reluctant to put time into it, because the better I get the more costly a bad run becomes, time-wise.

Something like Pac-Man CE or Outrun is much more interesting to me, because there’s a firm, tight time limit and it’s my job to perform as best I can within that limit. It’s also why 8-bit shooters are so much more interesting when they have Caravan modes — the main games tended to be overly long with a slow difficulty curve. The firm limits of Caravan cut out the easy bits and get straight to the meat.

But I do think more games should have endless modes. Bayonetta has this gauntlet mode that you unlock after you beat the game, and it’s neat, but it requires a huge time investment to clear and if you fail you gotta start over from the start. And a lot of the gauntlet’s early stages are dull and easy, and you can’t skip ahead to the harder bits. And it’s bullshit that you had to unlock it in the first place. It should have been available from the start. I think an endless m a ode with tons of options, such as what enemies you face and their difficulty, would have been a great addition. GIVE IT TO ME HARD, VIDEO GAMES.

I’m torn on whether Resident Evil 4 would be a better game without the upgrades. I think it’s one of the few action games that handles them well, and it’s entirely because the combat starts out satisfying. You can still pop heads open with the starting gun, right? You can still cap dudes in the knee and then German suplex them. Yet the upgrades aren’t shallow. The new weapons give you more options, and they’re often really fun options. But they’re not really more fun than the basic pistol. Just different.

The more time passes the more I’m convinced Halo is as underrated as universally praised game can be. It is a game with no upgrades. Your weapon choice is always limited and you’re often forced to change up your weapon layout, and it never comes across as artificial, like it does in so many modern games, where you’d have a cutscene where the hero, like, slams his thumb in a car door, so you can only fight with kicks for that battle. That is considered “variety” by many folks. It’s awful.

In Halo you just run out of ammo and have to grab whatever gun is lying around. A gun that will probably behave differently from your favored gun, but usually isn’t “worse”. And it’s still a gun. You’re still shooting. You’re still doing what Halo does best, just doing it a bit differently, and without the game forcing it upon you. Even the vehicle sections kinda revolve around this concept. It’s a great one. It’s a shame more devs aren’t capable of aping it. Hell, I’m not even sure they’re capable of seeing that the game’s simple nature is why it’s so damn popular.

I guess if you combine Halo and RE4 you end up with Gears of War, huh. That was a pretty great combo. So yeah, RE4 would have been just fine without the upgrades. But they were pretty neat still.

This is pretty rambling, and I actually meant to post about how the linear powerups in Cave games are one of the key elements that make them so enjoyable and set them apart from the pack back in the day Though I’m not sure who hopped off the stupid multiple-power-up train first. Doesn’t Gunbird only have one kind of shot? Is that from 1993? I think once shooters dumped the multiple-power up style and went with different character types the genre improved immensely. But even then, why have different characters? Why even have linear power-ups? Is Ikaruga the only modern Japanese shooter without power-ups? It’s one of the best features of the game.

You’re right about that particular endless stuff…I should’ve clarified that myself. Knew I should’ve thought this through some more! I considered them in the same line as the shooters, where they do have an end at some point in the sense that you die.

I’ll have to address the time attack stuff in another post, it’s too awesome to be hidden away in comments!